


Romance and the Internet

by Dragonsjustice



Series: All of Your Faves are Queer-Seriously, All of Them [1]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Asexual Character, Bisexual Character, Coming Out, Mostly Fluff, Pansexual Character, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 09:14:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5242796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonsjustice/pseuds/Dragonsjustice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Conner didn't understand the strange things that normal people did. Like sex, for example.</p>
<p>Alternate title: How Conner Discovered Asexuality Via a Hacker and a Speedster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Romance and the Internet

**Author's Note:**

> So, um, asexual Conner is one of my (many, many) Young Justice headcanons, but I still also headcanon him as biromantic. I'm also using the fact that he doesn't know much about the world to my advantage. 
> 
> I will probably cross-post this to fanfiction.net later, but for now it remains on here alone.
> 
> I will be using several of my other Young Justice LGBTQAADPBPCN+ headcanons in this fic, and they are all my personal ones. They are not canon anywhere except for my head, even if they are incredibly coded.
> 
> Also, sex is used as a plot device in this fic. It never actually happens, but I mention it quite a bit.

Conner knew what sex was. It was coded into his mind as something that was necessary to the survival of the species, but not as anything more than that.

The boys in his class acted like having sex was some sort of big achievement, especially if it was with one of the "hotter" girls in the school. But he didn't understand the appeal of it. It was just... What? Conner understood how it was a key part of the survival of the human race, but that didn't have anything to do with the obnoxious boys who whistled and jeered at some of the girls who walked down the halls as if they couldn't hear what they were talking about.

They all seemed to think that sex was something that people did for fun, for no reason at all.

But that... Wasn't how it worked, right?

He posed the question to Robin and Kid Flash-they were both human boys, so they would know what was going on, right? Why everyone was acting so weird except for the Team? (And some of the League, when he thought about it.)

"Why do people have sex for fun?"

Robin looked up from whatever it was that he was typing on the hologram on his wrist, which looked suspiciously like a school paper. He stared at the clone for a moment.

"What?"

"Why do people have sex for fun?" Conner repeated. "It's necessary for the survival of human and animal life, but why do people do it for no reason?"

Robin sighed. "That is an excellent question, and I think I'm going to need some backup."

He pulled a sandwich from out of nowhere and waved it in the air.

Conner blinked. How was he going to get backup with a...

There was a whoosh and a gust of wind, and Wally snatched the sandwich out of his best friend's hands. "You called?"

"Yeah. I need help explaining gender and sex and stuff to Superboy here. And that help is going to be you." Robin grabbed his friend my the wrist and forced him to sit down beside him. "C'mere, Supey, and let me tell you about how weird and sometimes cool the world is."

He tapped a few keys and pulled up a website with several long lists on it.

"Okay, what do you know about gender so far?" Robin asked, pulling up his legs so that he was sitting cross-legged.

Conner blinked and thought about what CADMUS had implanted into his brain. "The male or female identity of a human or animal, related to their sex."

Robin made a buzzer sound with his mouth and Kid Flash shook his head as he finished gulping down his sandwich.

"Well, you're partially right," Robin admitted. "It is a part of someone's identity. But it doesn't have anything to do with your sex."

"And it isn't just male and female," KF added. "There's also agender, where you don't have any gender, genderfluid, where your gender fluctuates, bigender, where you're two or more genders, non-binary, where you don't fit the gender binary, pangender, where you are all the genders, transgender, where you don't fit the gender that you were assigned at birth, and there's probably a bunch that I forgot."

Conner nodded and filed everything away in his head. "Okay. But what does that have to do with sex?"

"It doesn't, really. That's the next bit." Robin pulled up another sight. "Okay, pop quiz. What is romantic attraction, and how does it differ from sexual attraction? I'll give you thirty points."

KF elbowed his best friend lightly in the ribs. "Dude, he doesn't get it."

The clone thought to himself for a moment. "I... Don't know."

"That's fine," KF assured him. "I didn't know any of this stuff until Birdboy over here explained it. I'm pretty sure that there was a PowerPoint involved at some point."

"Sexual attraction," Robin continued, ignoring the speedster, "is basically what you're talking about. It's when you want to have sex with someone, kinda. Or not. There's all sorts of different sexualities out there, and I won't go into all of them, but some of the more "common" ones are heterosexual, where you're attracted to people of the opposite gender, homosexual, where you're attracted to people of the same gender, bisexual, where you're attracted to two or more genders, pansexual, where your attracted to people regardless of gender, and asexual, where you have little to no sexual attraction. There's also stuff like demisexual, ceterosexual, and polysexual, but we'll save that for another time, okay?"

Conner leaned forward a bit. "Asexual?"

"Yeah, that's what I figured you would be interested in. Basically, asexual people experience little to no desire for sex of any kind. Some of them don't care, some of them are disgusted by it, some of them like it only in theory and not in practice, and some people just don't understand it. It really varies from person to person."

"But they can still experience romantic attraction," KF pointed out. "They don't have anything to do with each other."

"So it's not just because I'm a..." Conner didn't finish the sentence.

KF shook his head. "Nope. Lots of people are ace."

"Ace?"

"It's faster than saying asexual. Like shortening pansexual to just pan, bisexual to bi, homosexual to... Gay or lesbian, even though that doesn't really work because they aren't shortened versions of that," the Flash's protege explained.

"Oh." Conner was quiet for a moment. "Are you asexual?"

He would have a hard time believing it, but anything was possible.

"No, pansexual all the way. Basically, I'll be attracted to you no matter what gender you are, but I usually fall for nice people. There's other stuff too, but... That's a more simplified version."

"Yeah, _nice_ is how I would describe them too," Robin said, rolling his eyes behind his domino mask.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

Before the two could start bickering, Conner interrupted them. "What about... Romance? Romantic attraction?"

"That's different," Robin said, waving a gloved hand. "Romantic attraction is, like, snuggling with someone or holding hands and stuff. For some people, kissing is a part of it."

"Ah. I think I have that."

"Lots of people who are asexual do, and the ones who don't are called aromantic," KF explained. "Or just aro. Again, it's shorter."

"What about you?" Conner asked Robin. "Are you... Anything?"

The younger boy was silent for a moment before he replied. "Yeah. I'm bisexual, but you shouldn't ask most people. They'll tell you when they're comfortable."

"Oh. Uh, sorry."

"'S fine. But if someone tells you their gender and their pronouns (like he and him, she and her, they and them, stuff like that) you should use them."

"Alright. Do some people  _not_ use them?"

Robin and Kid Flash both half-shrugged. "Hey, sometimes people are mean to each other for no reason."

Conner scowled and remembered the older boys at is school who picked on the smaller, scrawnier ones. They were definitely like those ones-people who were mean to each other for no reason.

"So... If someone tells me to call them something, then I should do it?" Conner checked. 

"Yeah. And if you accidentally get it wrong the first few times, ask them to spray you with cold water until you get it right," KF winced and rubbed the back of his neck. "It  _really_ works."

Robin snorted. "Only because you're terrible at remembering things."

Kid Flash lightly shoved his best friend off of the couch and onto the floor. "Hey! I resent that!"

_Recognized. Artemis, B07._

When the light faded, the green-clad hero was standing at the mouth of the Zeta Tubes. She nodded to the three male heroes.

"What are you three doing?"

"Teaching Conner about sexualities and gender and stuff," Robin answered as he hopped back up onto the couch. "He was a little confused, so we cleared it up."

Artemis blinked a few times. "Ah. Where's Kaldur?"

"No idea." KF shrugged. "Hey, do you wanna play Monopoly?"

"Only if I get to team up with Robin, because he always wins," Artemis countered.

"Fine! Supey and I will kick your butt."

(As per usual, Robin-and, by extension, Artemis-won.)


End file.
